When the Marquis of Sherwood declines her invitation to a Society occasion with the scathing comment that he has no wish to spend his time with débutantes, whom he believes are 'half-witted, gauche, stupid and not well-educated', Lady Katherine Wick is incensed. Even more so when she discovers that he apparently prefers the company of the Gaiety Girls, the femmes fatales of the theatrical set.

So she resolves to teach him a lesson by enlisting dear friend Lavina Vernon and her most beautiful, talented and witty friends to pose as Gaiety Girls at an unchaperoned party at the Marquis' country mansion – there to prove that Society girls are intelligent as well as glamorous. Kind, demure country parson's daughter Lavina is uncomfortable with this deceit – all the more so as she comes to realise that her heart belongs utterly to the Marquis. The question, once the pretence has been exposed, is whether he will treasure it... Or break it.